Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 1, No. 5 (1927-02)

The Phonograph Monthly Review 237 Bedrieh Smetana and Recorded Works By Dr. Jar. E. S. Vojan (Chicago) B EDRICH (Frederick) Smetana, the founder of the modern Bohemian (Czech) music, was born at Litomyshl in eastern Bo- hemia on the 2nd of March, 1824. He made such rapid progress in his piano studies that at the age of six he appeared in public as pianist. But later he was not able for a long time to overcome his father’s opposition to a musician’s career. Finally he succeeded and came to Prague in October, 1848. He went to Proksch, the famous piano teacher and peda- gogue, and soon became one of the greatest Bohemian piano virtuosos of all times. For a short time, he studied also at Weimar with Liszt who was his sincere friend till Smetana’s death. In 1856 he accepted Alexander Dreyschock’s suggestion to go as conductor of the Philharmonic Society to Gothenburg in Sweden, where he re- mained till 1861. Here he wrote his first symphonic poems, “Hakon Jarl,” “Richard III” and “Wallenstein’s Camp.” The opening of the Interim Theater in Prague induced Smetana’s return to the capital of Bohe- mia. This theater being a preparation for the present great Bohemian National Theater, he felt in his inmost heart that he was the only man could become a founder of the modern Bohemian music. He obeyed the voice of the genius of his nation and came to fulfill his great mission. Smetana was a wizard and a hero in one person. A wizard,—because he created the modern Bohemian music without any predecessors and put it at once on the level of the most modern music of his time. In the days he studied with Liszt at Weimar, Prague was still under the spell of Mozart whose epigon Tomashek was an absolute ruler in the musical life of Prague, and later Verdi and Meyerbeer became idols of Prague musicians. Smetana found the way how to con- nect Beethoven and Wagner with the character of the music of his nation, and so arose his absolutely original style which is a confluence of modernism and the spirit of the Bohemian folk music. He did not use any folk songs in his works, but he wrote his own original music so perfectly in the spirit of the folk music that his operas, symphonic poems, etc., are immensely dear to every Bohemian heart. His works are the Bohemian music par excellence. He gained his victory only after a long and tragic struggle. Smetana’s opponents asserted that the progress- ive ideas of the world’s music were incompatible with the national idea,—but Smetana proved the contrary. And so he wrote his operas and many other works which after half a century are as fresh and brilliant as if they had been written yesterday. They reached, as the works of all epoch-makers, far into the future, and until today they are unsurpassed and of unrivaled popularity in Czechoslovakia. A hero,—because many of his most beautiful works, full of grace and brilliancy, were written in complete deafness, in a state much worse than that in which Beethoven had written. For years a mysterious affection of his ears brought this ever-increasing malady in its train. No expert could explain the pathological basis of this afflic- tion, which was aggravated by the nervous strain of the long fight with his malignant enemies. On October 20, 1874, Smetana entirely lost the sense of hearing. He was stone-deaf, nor did he ever hear again. Yet he wrote without interruption. It was his desire that Bohemia should be glorified in his art, that he should shed lustre upon the music of his land and hold up before the entire world the glories of its history and the strength and power of its race. Smetana describes his own tragedy in a letter of December 11, 1881, in the following pathetic words: “The loud buzzing and roaring in my head, as though I were stand- ing under a great waterfall, continues day and night without interruption. When I compose, the buzzing is noisier. I hear absolutely nothing, not even my own voice. Conversation with me is impossible. I hear my own piano playing only in fancy, not in reality.” When you hear Sme- tana’s beautiful poem “Vltava” (Moldau),—till now its best record is the Polydor record, con- ducted by Leo Blech,—remember that there is the following note on the last page of the manu- script: “Being entirely deaf.” Yet Smetana was destined to endure a trial worse than that which he had made up his mind to bear with patient courage. In 1882 the great master began to show symptoms of mental in- stability. He was attacked by hideous delusions, his wonderful memory failed him. On April 22, 1884, he was brought into the asylum for the insane in Prague, and there he died in utter eclipse of mind, on May 12, 1884. His funeral was a royal one, the entire nation grieved for the dead master, and Liszt, when he heard of the death of his friend, said: “He was a genius.” Smetana composed eight operas: “Branibori v Cechach” (The Brandenburgers in Bohemia, first performance January 5, 1866), “Prodana nevesta” (The Bartered Bride, May 30, 1866), “Dalibor” (name of a knight from the end of the 15th century, hero of a folk legend,—first per- formance May 16, 1868), “Dve vdovy” (Two Widows, March 27, 1874), “Hubicka” (The Kiss, Nov. 7, 1876), “Tajemstvi” (The Secret, Sept. 18, 1878—all these first performances at the Interim Theater, the following two at the National Theater in Prague), “Libuse” (the daughter of the mythical ruler Krok, after whose death she reigned over the Bohemians,—a festival opera, the climax of Smetana’s dramatic music, first performance at the opening of the National